Were You At the Congress?

In this sharply contested election year political candidates have promised—if elected—to give us $2.50 per gallon gasoline or an unemployment rate as low as 6%, to mention only a few of many campaign assurances. Television viewing is saturated with derogatory advertisements about this or that candidate paid for by super PACs of unknown wealthy donors. Not wishing to be fooled in this pandemonium of voices, who do you believe is telling you the truth?

Along with judging the truthfulness of candidates, we must also deal with competing voices of hundreds of door-to-door salesmen who barge right into our homes through the window—of the television. Their glossy advertisements promising all that the heart desires, like the promises of politicians, can easily deceive us…but no one wants to be a fool! When wise King Solomon said, “The fool believes everything he is told” (Proverbs 14:15), the world’s fools were traumatized because until that time fools were indistinguishable from the wise. This saying of Solomon’s caused a real crisis for the fools of this earth, and so they convened an International Congress of Fools. Hundreds of thousands of fools from all over the world gathered, and after days of heated deliberation they finally accepted this resolution of the Congress: They would not believe anything! So even to this day, whenever people express their disbelief about some political or religious statement, they can be asked, “Really, were you at the Congress?” Blind faith is the belief of a fool. An example of this was a man in a religious dispute who said, "God said it. I believe it. That settles it!" Paradoxically, it is possible to practice blind faith and not be a fool! An example is driving on the highway as cars are coming towards you in the opposite lane at high speeds, and you exercise blind faith these drivers aren’t texting, drunk or high on drugs! Without this kind of blind trust, so severe would be your anxiety that you wouldn’t drive out of your garage. In daily life blind faith is sometimes necessary, but not in politics, advertising or religion.

Edward Hays

Haysian haphazard thoughts on theinvisible and visible mysteries of life.